Cities Offering the Best Barbecue in the Country

Recently LawnStarter released its 2024 ranking of the Best Barbecue Cities in America. Nashville came in as number 20 out of 500 cities. The top city on the list was Kansas City, Missouri, with Kansas City, Kansas coming in fourth. While Kansas City may self-proclaim themselves the Barbecue Capital of the World, Memphis, Tennessee came in second, up from fourth last year.

The ranking is based on five categories with multiple components making up each category totaling 20 total metrics. The judges looked at Access, Quality, Competition Awards, Elite Barbecue Memberships and the number of Hosted Events Sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

Barbecued meat can be grilled, smoked, rubbed and/or covered in brown, white, yellow or clear sauce that can be sweet, peppery, mustardy or vinegary. The South and Midwest are the places best known for their tradition of barbecue.

“Authenticity and history are key components in identifying a true barbecue city,” said LawnStarter expert Tyler White, Culinary Institute Program Manager, University of Tennessee Knoxville. “Aficionados should look for cities and regions that have a history of great pit-masters and family-owned businesses. The best barbeque cities have plenty of independently owned barbeque restaurants.”

That being said, it does make one wonder how Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas made it into the top twenty. They are not exactly known as the base of great pit-masters. However, Houston, Texas did come in third, and Texas certainly has a strong reputation for great barbecue.

Said the LawnStart article, “[Twenty-one] cities — such as Yonkers, New York, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and South Fulton, Georgia — [tied] for last place with few or [no] BBQ establishments or smokehouses, no barbecue festivals, and no prize-winning cooking teams.”

A recent article in Food and Wine magazine describes what makes great barbecue. “Pitmasters are like photographers — the very best equipment will only take you so far. If there’s passion, heart, and anything like love and commitment, it will shine through.”

While there are so many barbecue places in Memphis that you could eat at a different one every night of the week, each having its own style, Nashville has been also been developing a reputation for great barbecue over the last few years.

“In 2022, Memphis was dethroned by Southern Living magazine, as they crowned Nashville BBQ joint Peg Leg Porker as number one in the state,” said a blog on naturesgarden.net.

The city has some restaurants with a long history of offering barbecue created by a particular person or family, and some newer places that have become well loved. One of the oldest barbecue establishments in Nashville is Bar-B-Cutie Smokehouse, which opened their first restaurant in 1950, it is followed by Mary’s Old Fashioned Pit BBQ which was started in 1962 near Fisk University, Whitt’s began in 1978, and Jack Cawthon’s Barbecue has had a strong following since 1989.

Newer places like Edley’s and Martin’s have helped put Nashville’s barbecue on the map. They are often found on top ten lists of favorite barbecue joints in the city.

Barbecue is hailed as an all-American dish, but its heritage comes from a blend of three different food traditions — Southeastern Indian, West African, and West European – according to naturesgarden.net. The slow form of cooking meat comes from indigenous Indian tribes of the American Southeast, Europeans brought the pigs, and West African slaves brought the blend of spices and initially combined the elements that eventually became what we know as barbecue.

With July being Picnic Month, Family Reunion Month, and National Culinary Arts Month, what better time to break out the barbecue and share it with family and friends.